The entrance antiphon goes thus: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.” In a contrast tone, the Psalmist says, “If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! O let my tongue cleave to my palate (mouth) if I remember you not…” (Ps 137:5-6); this brings to mind two phases of today’s liturgy, the wrath and compassion of God shown in the exile and the liberation of his people.
With this, the Laetare Sunday sets the tone of a joyful anticipation of our salvation with a call to rejoice.The wrath and compassion of God are evident in the first reading. The reading identifies three elements that brought down God’s judgement of the Israelites. They were unfaithful; they defiled the temple and laughed at the prophets. God, great in mercy to his people, sent warnings but these warnings were rejected.
These warnings were expressions of his love and mercy inviting this sinful city and people return to him but they consistently and persistently remained in their sins till they experienced the wrath of God. Having rejected his message and the messengers of his compassion, God turned Judah over to a leader and a people who had no compassion upon their people and there arose the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Those who escaped the sword were carried away to Babylon where they became servants to the King of Chaldean until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, an expression of God’s compassion that his people return home While in captivity, they sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon. They wept when they remembered they were not home anymore.
As they remembered Zion, they wept. They wept over the death of so many loved ones; they wept over the loss of almost everything they owned; they wept over the destroyed city of Jerusalem and its temple. They wept over the agony of a forced march from Judea to Babylon; they wept over the cruelty of their captors; they wept over the loss of such a pleasant and blessed past; they wept because of the uncertainty of their future; finally, they wept over their sins, their rebellious and hardened hearts that has invited such judgment from God. While in this mournful state, remembering their past, their captors requested they sing one of Zion’s songs for their amusement, the song simply wasn’t there.
Their songs were composed out of personal relationship with God and to sing it for their captors would have been a play of traitorism to their own lost city and to God. Still in their mournful state, they vowed not to forget Jerusalem saying, “If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not” (Ps 137:5). Can we because of present challenges forget the wonders the Lord has done for us? Can we be bold enough to remember God in difficult moments like the singer of the psalm? Williams Shakespeare tells us, “If music is the food of the soul, play more that I may have a full of it.” The song of the psalmist is so beautiful that it revives a troubled heart and gives joy to God’s people.
This joy is better expressed in the Gospel as God has given to us the best gift gratuitously, the gift of his only begotten Son. The Gospel contains one of the most famous verses in the Bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17). In the first reading, we notice God’s gift of salvation through his message and his messengers of compassion. In the Gospel, we notice God’s love and compassion extends not only to the Jewish people but also to the whole world, for he did not wait for the world to turn to him before he loved the world, he loved and gave his only begotten Son to the world when it was still the ‘sinful’ world.
Importantly, the reading describes the recipients of God’s love. We may not benefit from the love of God if we do not believe in Christ, for whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Belief in Christ means much more than intellectual awareness or agreement. It means to trust, rely and cling to Christ. He who believes in Christ is not condemned, but he, who deliberately reject or refuse to believe in Christ, is condemned already, just like the Israelites who persistently refused the message and the messenger of God in the first reading.
This is because men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. To love darkness is to be comfortable remaining in sin and to refuse the mercy of God offered to us. In view of this, I recall one of the adages of my Novice Master, “He who refuse to enter the ship should not say there is no space.” However, where sin abound, grace abound the more. In light of this, that St. Paul in the second reading tells us, “God who is rich in mercy, out of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, we were saved by grace” (Ep 2:5). This is an expression of God’s love, compassion and mercy in reconciling man to himself, also highlighting the grace of God in action. God loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, unable to save ourselves nor justify ourselves. At this point, he expressed his love so much to us that he had to share in our death so that we can rise to eternal life with him.
Dear friends in Christ, the Laetare Sunday calls us to rejoice at this unmerited grace given to us in Christ Jesus, rooted in the love and mercy of a compassionate Father. We are saved by grace and it is not by our making but a gift from God. God will never stop dealing with us on the basis of grace, and will forever continue to unfold his riches to us through eternity. God is so rich in grace that all the demands that can ever be made on the grace of God will never impoverish him, or even diminish his store of mercy. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen! Happy Sunday!
